One of the reasons I love Logos Bible Software
As a seminarian and a devoted user of Bible software, I am often asked what I might recommend for Bible software. While other programs (BibleWorks, Accordance) do have their advantages, I am quite happy with Logos. Years ago, their emphasis on library building meant an emphasis on (in my humble opinion) cheesy and unhelpful biblical tools. As I understand the narrative of Bible software history, when Logos was compared to BibleWorks in those days, Logos seemed an almost embarrassing choice for serious scholars of the biblical text. More recently, however, Logos has been capitalizing on their effective method of library building in a more scholarly way. One can now find incredible resources in whole sets of commentaries (such as Hermeneia and the NIGTC) or various collections of scholarly monographs (one example of many is the Library of NT Studies: JSNTS on the Gospels and Acts).
But as one who is preparing for doctoral study, the benefit of Logos for which I’m thankful at the moment is their possibilities for in-depth language study. Today in the mail, I received my order of Logos’ two versions of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I now have not only BHS, but the Targums of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project and the DSS. Not to mention the fact that I have BDB, HALOT, Gesenius, Jouon-Muraoka, Waltke-O’Connor, and plenty of other Hebrew and Aramaic resources at my finger tips. That means that I can do powerful language searches, run automatic word studies, and a bunch of other stuff I don’t even know about yet.
The same goes for Greek, but even more so. There are simply more possibilities for a range of Greek literature. So, in addition to having precious grammars (Robertson, BDF, Wallace, etc.) and lexica (BDAG, LSJ, M-M, Louw-Nida, TDNT, etc.) to call upon, as well as the LXX and various versions of the Greek NT (including many of the earliest papyri manuscripts – which is linked with the apparatuses Logos offers), I have options for exploring other primary sources. Logos currently offers or is developing: the Pseudepigrapha, the works of Philo, a critical edition of Josephus’ works, the Apostolic Fathers, and now Homer’s Illiad (see Rick Brannon’s post about this on the Logos blog). All of these are morphologically tagged, so a reader can decide whether and when they’d like to use “crutches.” But it is nice to be able to double-click on a word and have it pop up in BDAG or LSJ.
Another thing that I’m itching to acquire, but is too much of a wallet buster at the moment is the SESB 2.0 collection. This includes the critical apparatuses for both the Greek NT (NA27 and UBS4) and BHS. It even includes part of the new BHQ, the Gospel of Thomas (in four languages), and many modern language (other than English) Bibles.
Logos is also working on developing Coptic resources (see Crum, for example) and a few things on Ugaritic. Also exciting is the Oxford Latin Dictionary, which will be a huge resource for scholars who work with Latin. My guess is that once they have this massive Latin dictionary available, Logos will start adding Latin texts of the early church and Greco-Roman world. They obviously already have the Vulgate.
Logos has even begun to create an electronic version of the unabridged Collins English Dictionary. A while back, I recommended they develop the OED (they have a suggestion email address), but that is naturally a huge undertaking. I think that it is important for those who work with language have tools regarding their own language as well as others.
In the future, I think I’d like to see Logos develop more German resources. Perhaps since they now have a relationship with Collins, they can look into producing the Collins German Dictionary. Or the Oxford-Duden, which is the print dictionary that I have and I think is the most helpful. I know a lot of students in theology and biblical studies who could use German tools. Maybe things like Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage by Durrell and/or German Quickly by April Wilson. One text that may be especially useful would be Ziefle’s Modern Theological German: A Reader and Dictionary. I can see these resources branching out into the works of many of the great German theologians and biblical scholars. That’s long term, I suppose.
But that last point is exactly the reason I love Logos. I can think of the build up of their resources over time. They are constantly adding helpful tools for language study and the possibilities for research keep expanding. With all of this said, one can really see how Logos has taken their stereotyped “cheesy Christian library” role from the past and not only blown it out of the water, but turned their “weakness” into a formidable strength for scholarly work. [I know some Logos folks might disagree with my depiction of their past image, but I'm just commenting on how I perceive things . . . I'm willing to be wrong. I was one of their customers back in my fundamentalist highschooler days 10 years ago, so I have some personal experience with the history as well as what I've heard from some biblical scholars.]
. . . Ooh, one more thing. I think it’d be cool to get some of those books from the 501 Verb series that Barron’s does, especially the ones for Latin and German, on Logos. I have found those very helpful.
Learning German
I just reached my second language “milestone” of the summer: tonight I took the “final” for Theological German. The word “final” is in quotes for two reasons. First, Peter Bach (our professor) emphasized that it is by no means the “final” test of our German; it is just one more step in the journey. And also, because it was like no other final exam I have ever taken. We were given a German text, a decades-old article about source criticism in Old Testament scholarship, two weeks in advance. We were allowed to translate through it (or “render” it, since there’s no such thing as translation, Peter says) on our own or in groups. We even ran over any questions that we had about this “final” text in the classes leading up to the last day of class. When it came down to go time, we would go around the classroom and would have to spot-render a sentence from the text without looking at our notes. He let us bring our notes to class, though, and look at them briefly before our turn. My final exam sentence?
3. Das in Jüngster Vergangenheit sich durchsetzende Stadium einer geschichtlichen und religionsgeschichtlichen Neuorientierung.
The “3″ refers to the third of three stages of research history according to Kittel (“So hätten wir nach Kittel also drei Stadien der Forschungsgeschichte zu unterscheiden:”). My wooden rendering?
3. The stage asserting in the recent past of a historical and religious-historical re-orientation.
I’m not sure I know what that means, but hey, at least I translated… I mean, rendered it. If I had to guess, I’m thinking the author is referring to some shift in recent scholarship, a reorientation in thinking about religious history and history in general. Perhaps Old Testament history. That was the whole final. I chose to read the German aloud, even though that wasn’t required. Then I said the exact same rendering I wrote just now. That was it. Done. Finis.
Christina pointed out to me that this is the fifth language that I have studied, not including English. It sounds impressive, but it’s not really. I’m only fluent in one language and we’ve already seen in an earlier post how dusty my Greek is, which is my next best language. I’ve also studied Hebrew, Spanish, and French to some extent. In this regard, I feel like I’m a little qualified to assess my learning experience in this German class.
Peter’s approach was to spend a little bit of time on grammar (the first two weeks) and then dive into reading German texts. We did some easy ones to start and then jumped into Helmut Ziefle’s Modern Theological German: A Reader and Dictionary. We were required to purchase a dictionary and April Wilson’s German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German. April Wilson’s text might be good for a class that is going through her book as an assigned reading, but it was used in our class merely as a reference. As a reference book, Wilson’s book is terrible. I cannot judge the information contained within the book, but it is not easy to use if you want to look up a specific grammatical issue. So I purchased Martin Durrell’s Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage, which I found much more helpful. I decided on the unabridged Oxford Duden German Dictionary. The dictionary is great but since we did not memorize vocabulary, I found it extremely time-consuming to translate through German texts as a beginner. I did find two really stellar websites that helped this handicap: the LEO online German-English dictionary and its companion site Canoo.net for grammar, morphology, inflection, etc. By using the online tools, things went much quicker, giving me more time to think about patterns that I was seeing in grammar and vocabulary.
Many people were skeptical of Peter’s teaching approach from the start of the class. Some people came around. Some people were frustrated with the class. Personally, I am ambivalent about it. I learn well with others and the course was essentially a German reading course with a small, friendly group. We had a grand old time giving our pitiful English renderings of German texts together. I don’t think I have ever had a class that has laughed so much. But I do know there was something missing. I am still operating at a basic level. Sure, I can understand a complicated scholarly German article after spending two weeks on it. But I still need the dictionary and I don’t have verbal forms memorized (except for the easy-to-spot past participle).
The tension is: When you are starting from scratch, how much of one language can you teach people in ten weeks? What should you emphasize? If we spent more time on vocabulary and grammar, I might be ending the class feeling much less confident about being able to conquer “real” German texts. Though the course was lacking in some necessary items, it was a good learning experience for me overall. I learned the basics of German sentence structure, grammar, basic vocabulary, and how to use tools. I may take another German course someday, but for now I’m happy with the result. I’m planning on keeping up with it by reading book reviews from Review of Biblical Literature that are written in German. There is also a German reading group at Fuller that I might start attending. Here’s hoping that I didn’t just flush $1400 down the drain for no apparent reason!
It's all Greek…
It is finished. I have been immersing myself in Greek for the past few days, awaiting the Greek waiver exam (to pass out of the three quarter New Testament Greek requirement at Fuller). I took the exam today. Perhaps it is blasphemous to use Jesus’ last words (as told by John) to describe the completion of the test. But it’s in Greek and the test was on Greek, so there you have it.
It has been four years since I’ve actively used my Greek. I had a pretty good grasp on it in college, with four semesters of study and two as a TA. It is a little hazy these days, but is in the process of resurrecting. In the last 48 hours I have been in a constant state of flux between confidence and panic, excitement and fear. I thought about changing the date of the exam, but I figured that I should just get it over with.
As it turns out, the exam was quite difficult. I did well on vocab, which is what I concentrated on in my studying. And I had three one-sentence translations that were okay. But I didn’t dust off my parsing well enough. There were about 40 words to parse and they weren’t easy. I took too long thinking about them and ran out of time. I left some things blank. I’m often not very good at time management on tests. So I may pass with either a recommendation or requirement that I take the Greek Reading course. It’s something that I’d want to do anyway. The recommendation is left up to the discretion of the grader. I think I may have to study up more and take the test again next quarter. I don’t really mind. Even though the test is finished, as my German professor says, it is not over. Even if I had passed with no errors, it would only be the beginning of my own personal Greek renewal. Here’s to Greek.
Update (9/15/2006): I just opened the envelope to my graded “Greek Waiver Exam 1″ and the results are not good. I understand you’re supposed to make yourself look spiffy and smart on these blogs, but alas, I would like to break with that tradition and be honest. My results show just how rusty I am. I did well on the translation section, good on vocab, but bombed the morphology (the parsing section), and I hardly touched the syntax section when I took it, so that was pretty bleak. The grader determined that I did not pass the exam and should take Beginning Greek; as, indeed, he should have. Well, the thought of sitting in a classroom and going through Mounce’s book for a third time over (the last two were as a student, then a TA… four years ago) just sticks a huge, wicked sharp needle into my oversized balloon of academic joy. Instead, I know that I can adjust my study methods to rock the “Greek Waiver Exam 2″ (The Sequel: Back and Better than Ever). I concentrated more on my GRE this summer than I did the Greek. I am now privy to the secrets of these large exams. I think I can dismantle its challenges by dint of my own intellectual brawn. It’s going to take lots of flashcards for parsing and vocab. I will also try to do at least two translations from the Summer Greek Reader per week with an eye to syntactical functions with the help of Daniel B. Wallace.
The envelope containing my exam results is postmarked 9/8/06, which is exactly four weeks from the time I took the exam. I would like to have the results for the next exam before I register for Winter quarter, which will be between November 14-17. That means I should take the next exam in mid-October and that I have about a month from today to study. I best get crackin’! If I don’t pass this next one free and clear, without any additional requirements to meet for Greek at Fuller, I think I will have to bite the bullet and (ugh) go through a boring intensive of Beginning Greek (or the not-so-boring Greek Reading, if that’s what’s required). But that’s not going to happen. We must think positive thoughts, harness our chi, and bombard our brains with lots of Greek. I’m only sorry (and a bit embarrassed) that Chris had to grade my poor exam, and that Dr. Scholer had to sign off on it. It’ll be better next time. Prepare to be dazzled.
Update (10/6/06): So if I follow my plan from my last update, I would have to take the Waiver exam in the next week. I have hardly been able to study for Greek. Christina started a Masters of Public Health. It is set up for health professionals, so she only goes in for a three-day weekend about once a month. But she is technically a full-time student, and her homework reflects it. She’s also still keeping her full-time job. That means that I have been taking up a lot more work around the apartment, while some of it isn’t getting done by either of us. I’ve barely had time to work on my Fall quarter classes. I have decided not to try to take the exam for next quarter. I really wanted to take Exegetical Methods with Marianne Meye Thompson (which you need the Greek requirement for), but I get the feeling that I’m getting the upscale version of that with her in New Testament Research Methods.
The more I think about it, though, I also do not want to take the Greek intensive next quarter. I would really rather save those units to take the more advanced Greek courses and use the rest of my electives to take NT classes. I hear that this is Donald Hagner’s last year at Fuller pre-retirement and I could take a class with him next quarter on Paul and the Law. There are a couple other classes that I could benefit from taking next quarter too, like my Old Testament exegesis class with Butler (before I forget my Hebrew too much) and Early Church History with Bradley.
So here’s the new plan: After Fall quarter ends, study like mad for Greek during the three weeks of winter break; take the exam just before the Winter quarter begins; pass the exam with flying colors. This way, I can take Exegetical Methods in the Spring quarter with Fuller’s newest NT faculty addition, Love Sechrest. She got her doctorate at Duke, I believe under Mark Goodacre. It would be good to get to know her a bit. I always like getting to know recent PhDs; I’m not sure why that is. I can also take Greek Reading in the Spring quarter this way. I think it’ll work out okay.
Revelation: Lost in Translation
In the first edition of his Greek version of the New Testament, Erasmus did not have a Greek Manuscript available for the last bit of Revelation. So he translated Revelation 22:16-21 from the Latin Vulgate into Greek. This obviously introduced errors. There is an interesting website called “Lost in Translation” which takes an English text, translates it into another language, translates it back into English, another language, and so forth. Just for a reminder of the perils of translation, let’s see what it does with Revelation 22:16-21 as taken from the NRSV English translation. (Sidenote: my German professor says there is no such thing as a “translation” – we have to say “rendering” or “interpretation”)
English:
“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
Translated into French:
le “It est I, Jésus, qui vous a envoyé mon ange avec ce témoignage pour les églises. Je suis la racine et le descendant de David, le matin lumineux tiennent le premier rôle ; L’esprit et la jeune mariée indiquent, “Come.” ; Et laissez chacun qui entend la parole, “Come.” ; Et laissez chacun qui a soif venu. Laissé n’importe qui qui souhaite à prise l’eau de la vie comme cadeau. J’avertis chacun qui entend les mots de la prophétie de ce livre : si n’importe qui ajoute à eux, Dieu ajoutera à cette personne que les pestes ont décrite en ce livre ; si n’importe qui emporte des mots du
livre de cette prophétie, Dieu emportera la part de cette personne dans l’arbre de la vie et dans la ville sainte, qui est décrite en ce livre. Celui qui témoigne à ces choses indique, “Surely je suis prochain soon.” ; Amen. Venez, Seigneur Jésus ! La grace du
seigneur Jésus soit avec tous les saints. Amen.
Back to English:
the “It is I, Jesus, who sent to you my angel with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the luminous morning holds the first role; The spirit and the bride indicate, “Come.” And leave each one which hears the word,
“Come.” And leave each one which is thirsty come. Left no matter whom who wishes with catch brandy like gift. I informed each one which hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if no matter who adds to them, God will add to this person that the plagues described in this book; if no matter who carries words of the book of this prophecy, God will carry the share of this person in the tree of the life and the Holy City, which is described in this book. That which testifies with these things indicates, “Surely I am next soon.” Amen. Come, Seigneur Jesus! The grace of the Jesus lord is with all the saints. Amen.
Translated into German:
das “It ist I, Jesus, der Ihnen meinen Engel mit diesem Zeugnis für die Kirchen schickte. Ich bin die Wurzel und der Folgeprozeß von David, der leuchtende Morgen hält die erste Rolle an; Der Geist und die Braut zeigen, “Come.” an; Und lassen Sie jedes, das das Wort hört, “Come.” Und lassen Sie jedes, das gekommen durstiges ist. Links gleichgültig, das, wer mit Verriegelung Weinbrand wie Geschenk wünscht. Ich informierte jedes, welches die Wörter der Prophezeiung dieses Buches hört: wenn, egal wer ihnen hinzufügt, Gott dieser Person daß die Pest hinzufügt, die in diesem
Buch beschrieben wird; wenn, egal wer Wörter des Buches dieser Prophezeiung trägt, Gott den Anteil dieser Person im Baum der Lebensdauer und der heiligen Stadt trägt, die in diesem Buch beschrieben wird. Das, das mit diesen Sachen bezeugt, zeigt, “Surely ich sind folgendes soon.” an; Amen. Gekommen, Seigneur Jesus! Die Anmut des Jesus Lords ist mit allen Heiligen. Amen.
Back to English:
I, Jesus, which you angels mean with this certification for the churches sent, is “It. I am the root and the discrete event type process of David, the lighting up morning stop the first role; The spirit and the bride show, “Come.” on; And you leave everyone, which hears the word, “Come.” And you leave everyone, which is come thirsty. Left indifferently, that, who requires with interlock weinbrand such as gift. I informed everyone, which hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if, all the same who adds them, God of this person that the plague adds, which is described in this book; if, all the same who carries words of the book of this prophecy, God carries the proportion of this person in the tree of the life span and the holy city, which are described in this book. That, which testifies with these things, shows, “Surely I is the following soon.” on; Amen. Come, Seigneur Jesus! The beauty of the Jesus lord is with all holy ones. Amen.
Translated into Italian:
_ I, jesus, che voi angelo signific con questo certificazione per chiesa trasmett, “It. _ io radice e discreto evento tipo processo david, illuminazione mattina arresto primo ruolo; _ lo spirito e bride mostr, “Come.” sopra; _ e voi lasci tutto, che sent parola, “Come.” _ e voi lasci tutto, che ven assetato. _ parte di sinistra indifferently, quello, che richied con interruttore di sicurezza weinbrand quale regalo. _ io inform tutto, che sent parola prophecy questo libro: _ se, tutto stesso che aggiung loro, dio questo
persona che peste aggiung, che essere descriv in questo libro; _ se, tutto stesso che trasport parola libro questo prophecy, dio trasport percentuale di questo persona albero life durata e santo città, che essere descriv in questo libro. _ quello, che testimoni con questo cosa, esposizione, “Surely i seguente soon.” sopra; _ amen. _ Ven, Seigneur Jesus! _ la bellezza jesus signore con tutto santo quel. _ amen. _
Back to English:
_ I, jesus, than you angel signific with this certification for church trasmett, “It. _ I root and discreet event type process david, lighting system morning arrest first role; _ the spirit and bride mostr, “Come.” over; _ and you lasci all, than sent word, “Come.” _ and you lasci all, than ven made thirsty _ part of left indifferently, that one, than richied with emergency switch weinbrand which gift _ I inform all, than sent word prophecy this book: _ if, all same that aggiung they, God this person who plague aggiung, than to be descriv in this book; _ if, all same that trasport word book this prophecy, God trasport percentage of this person tree life duration and saint city, than to be descriv in this book _ that one, than witnesses with this thing, exposure, “Surely following soon.” over; _ amen _ Ven, Seigneur Jesus! _ the beauty jesus getlteman with all saint those _ amen _
And it just goes downhill from there. One interesting observation is about the “the” error which was introduced into the French rendering from the beginning (the first word of the passage). It was repeated again in English, then in German, but was removed when going from German back into English. Secondly, for whatever reason some of the punctuation just couldn’t make it through into Italian and thus our punctuation in the final English translation is greatly flawed. Finally, there are foreign words that the website could not translate into English: “Seigneur,” “mostr,” “ven,” “getlteman.” These words were
simply used in the English text in the same location as they had been in the previous language.
The end result is obviously massively butchered from the beginning passage. The point of this exercise is not to show that this is exactly what happens in the the scribal or translation process, but it makes me think a little bit about what is involved in the translation and copying of sacred texts. One would assume that an educated human doing the same translations would do better than the computer. But why? If translation were a one-to-one equation, a machine could do it better than humans. All translation is (to some extent) an interpretation. Nothing surprising, but it was fun to experiment.
(Oh, and yes, there is some intended irony in using this particular passage when it comes to translation… Let’s just hope I don’t experience any plagues as a result of this blog posting!)
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Elsewhere . . .- Blog titles beginning with "A" to "Z" on your reader Mark Goodacre
- Of making many books there is no end Chris Brady
- Free Online: The Liddell-Scott Jones Lexicon S and C
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? II agathos
- Steven J. Friesen and the Identity of Satan’s Throne in Pergamum alan
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? agathos
- Bloomsbury buys Continuum Mark Goodacre
- Imperial America Peter J. Leithart
- C.F.D. Moule on the Birth of the New Testament d. miller
- Responding to Kostenberger (with comparisons to Marshall) Jeremiah
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